I just got to change mine out at 10 years/83Kmi. Break in the plastic side tank. Does anything ever break at a convenient time? At least I was home when I noticed the leak.

 

Times that you conveniently have money better spent on performance parts, that's when it usually hits me, my car senses when I have ~300 dollars play money and it just can't stand it. It does break down in convenient locations sometimes though.

 

Yeah the plastic side tank broke on mine as well, I'll have to check the mileage I replaced it as I'm not at home now where I have it written down. I'm assuming mine was the original radiator.

 

Coming up on 11 years here and nothing yet. (knock on wood)

I had an '86 Z28 that had the radiator break at around 100,000 miles after 7 years then again on the highway in the middle of the night 4 years later (which happened on the passenger side down below so I didn't notice anything until suddenly my engine was acting strangely and then I saw the temp gauge and THEN the dummy light came on... and that was that...

 

No radiator problems to date...

 

funny you ask it lasted me till about now and iam the 1 and only owner .

oh and ya the plastic end cap cracked between the trans cooler . but it was still driveably too .

 

Original since 93.........

 

mine broke at like 120k miles, the side peice like everyone else said.

 

Mine lasted until 103,434 miles, assuming it was the original factory one, and I don't have a reason to believe it wasn't the original one.

 

Is the plastic side tank everyone is talking about the one that has the battery tray attached?

 

There is no battery tray attached to the radiator.

 

My battery tray is broken on my car and i found a new one that also comes with the coolant overflow bottle attached. This is where i thought it might be broken or leaking from. I never knew of any other plastic on the radiator.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/93-02...QQcmdZViewItem

 

The side tanks are plastic and the core is aluminum.

 

I have one that is original in my 83...... still going strong with no leaks.. Has plastic end caps as well.... guess it was just lucky.. i have had to replace a few in my other cars. Seems to like to crack on the passenger side.

 

I have the same broken battery tray problem. Its on my very long list of things to do next time drain the coolant.

According to Shoebox's parts list, the part number for the battery tray/coolant reservoir is 10402687, and its like $25 on gmpartsdirect.com with $11 shipping. So you can save yourself $10 if you want.